Henry felt silly as he still had the balloons bobbing above him while he was holding her. He untied the balloons and was about to let them blow away in the wind, when Ellie"s hand reached out and took the balloons from him. She moved backwards away from him and wiped her eyes. She wound one balloon around each headstone before choosing to wind two around the larger headstone. After she had finished, she wiped her nose on her hand and tried to stop the sniffling. Ellie could feel that Henry was behind her, but strangely she wished that she was alone.However, he wasn"t going to let her. He pulled the back of her coat gently. "Are you ok? I"m happy to see that you don"t blame them for what they did to you, even though by all accounts you have every right to be angry. I"m sorry I didn"t think to stop by for something more appropriate to leave like flowers."
"Flowers would have been better than some red balloons with a bakery on them. But that"s life. Sometimes you don"t get what you want and you have to make do with what you have. I"m not really in the frame of mind to go into a flower shop right now. But it"s been a long time."
"I wish I could understand the way you turn your anger into something less harmful."
"I"m still the one who was hurt by them. The emotions are still there." Ellie explained. "I"m still angry and sad and still you know not comprehending how someone can be so cruel. I"m angry that people didn"t do anything when they saw it. I have plenty of anger pent up. I"m not some unmovable stone. I"m just trying not to affect my good fortune now. I would want their graves to be removed as I don"t consider them my true family, but to remove the dead is something my father would find distasteful."
"You can do whatever you wish. The townsfolk will grow to understand if you really feel that you don"t want them here. I don"t want to ruin the moment of your mourning your parents with the bad memory of them being here too."
Ellie considered his words. "I"m not my sisters. I"m not going to sink to their level, but I may have their headstones moved. It"s strange that they are here in the first place because I doubt they were ordered by close family. Their remains have yet to come back to the church."
"That sounds like a much better idea." His hand moved down and tried to touch hers. It was kind of sweet to see him admit that he had been wrong.
For a couple of seconds, she let her hand be wrapped in his. It was a lot easier to figure out how to benefit oneself than it would be to benefit everyone. The true reason she was moving the headstones was so the townsfolk didn"t feel disgust when coming to pay respects to her dad. Maybe she could let her past history with her sisters go as it had been years since she had last seen them, but for the townsfolk a lot of those memories where quite fresh and raw. It was strange to think that she had to think of everyone when making a decision.
Henry hands grasped at nothing when he realized she had left his hands. He sighed before putting his hands into his pockets. "Where is your father"s grave?"
That wrung a little smile from her as her thoughts had moved to something that brought her a little more joy. "He"s resting in the row in front. I saw it, but I thought I should say hi to grandfather first. Why don"t we go introduce ourselves so he can meet you before you head back to New York."
Ellie threaded her arm in the crook of his and pulled him around the long row of headstones. There with his first wife was the previous Baron Braye. The way she stared longingly at the stone, wrung sympathy from Henry. He wished he had been closer to his parents. Her expression stayed pensive. "You know I did come see him after the funeral without telling anyone. I actually came at midnight with my mother when everyone had left. We had to do it in secret or we would have been forcibly removed by the paid off authorities. It was extremely difficult to see my mother disrespected, but also accepting of the maltreatment. There was nothing she could do as she was a Chinese immigrant in a town of people who were against her. No one wanted to help her because of how the laws were rigged against her. She probably would have lost if she tried suing my sisters for money just based on her skin color. I haven"t been around since then."
Looking around, Henry saw there was a rose bush planted near the side of the grave yard so he ran over and plucked off a couple blossoms. He held out his hands to offer them up to Ellie. She arranged them in a heart on her father"s grave before taking the extra one and putting it back to Henry"s hand. He closed his hand around it before letting it fly off. She stood up slowly before turning around and holding him tightly. Henry was unsure what to do with his hands before taking her offered body and wrapping himself tightly around her. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressed hard into his chest so he kissed her forehead. The tighter she gripped him, the more he could feel the reaction to her closeness. It was wildly inappropriate to act on his attraction to her now, but it was always there beating like a wild heart between them. He always tried to give her a polite distance so she wouldn"t feel that he was intruding, but somehow he always ended up touching her. He liked it more than he realized.